Everything about setting up your life in Singapore | Expat Guide

oh my gosh i'm talking so much my throat i am parched [Music] hello everybody as you can tell from the video title today is going to be a hella informative and super hefty video i am going to try to do a dummies 101 guide to setting up your life in singapore something that i wish i had when i first moved here if you are new to my channel hello i'm sherry i'm originally from canada and i moved to singapore almost three years ago now and i moved here for work so i personally have gone through the entire process of trying to figure out everything i need to do when i first landed in singapore and i remember it being a mildly overwhelming list so i tried my best to order things almost like chronologically for you guys so the moment you land in singapore what can you do as usual since it's a longer video i'm going to include the timestamp so feel free to skip to whichever section you would like to look at first today's video is sponsored by dps bank uh really grateful for this opportunity because they are supporting me making this super hefty video which i put a lot of effort into i've got my laptop in front of me i have typed up pages on a word document of everything i'm gonna cover today so grab a drink set that booty down and let's just get started first things first you need to go get your id a physical card you can get this mailed to you you can get a mail to your office or to your home but the person that's receiving the card needs to be the authorized recipient so it is a government piece of documentation after all so obviously there's a legit process to this however if you're not at home or whatever reason you can't receive it you can do what i did which is go to the actual building where the ministry of manpower is and it's located at clarkey so it's quite central in the city i just went there physically to pick it up they took a photo of me so if you want to do your makeup and all that kind of stuff just yeah you'll get your photo taken and then you can pick up your physical card once you pick up the physical id card the second thing i would recommend you to do is make a sing pass account so sync pass stands for singapore personal access and it's essentially a virtual government id app that you can have on your phone or on your devices and i personally wish i signed up for this earlier i didn't even know this existed so sing pass is super great because it literally is the place where all your personal information is stored within the government system so finance related things if you have a car in singapore like registered vehicles will be on there everything down to even your coveted vaccination certificates everything can be stored in this app the reason why i recommend doing this earlier is because there's a lot of things that you're setting up where you can just log in via sync pass so you do not need to regurgitate all your personal information all over again because it is just like a qr code you scan and then they'll pull all your information from your government account already so just makes your life really easy and eventually if you're living in singapore at one point or another you are going to need the same pass account so just set it up right off the get-go the third thing you want to do when you arrive in singapore is naturally to set up a bank account so obviously you need to eventually have your payroll going into an account and also you probably want to have some local credit cards so you're not using your credit card from back home and paying crazy foreign transaction fees so setting up a bank account may sound like a really daunting process with a lot of paperwork but man they have really simplified the process i swear okay so i personally bank with dbs it is one of the major banks here there are obviously other options but personally i went with dbs because when i was just doing my research and other friends told me they've got a lot of atms around singapore so if you see any dbs or posb logo atms you can withdraw your money there and so i was like that's a perk but i personally feel like one their app is just great ux ui team at dbs really great i think it's simple to use i've never had any issues with it and then secondly the customer service team like the phone line never been waiting for more than five minutes whether i was overseas trying to make transactions and something's going on it's just super easy given all that i've stuck with dbs for the last few years and i'm really happy with it so if you're also interested in opening a bank account i obviously recommend dbs as well there are two different ways you can make an account with dbs and both of them are honestly really easy okay first one is with sync pass second one is without saying pass if you followed my tips in chronological order then you should already have a sync pass account dbs is actually the first local bank that allows you to just integrate and plug in your sync pass which is so easy so all your government related personal information is basically pre-logged into dbs from that point you save like steps here and time here so that is super great and also with the sing pass route you're also literally setting up a bank account instantly once you plug in your sync pass account i think there's just maybe a few other things that you need to provide like employment information annual income tax residency and things like that really straightforward once you connect to your senpass account pretty much instantly gets to pick your dbs starter bundle so the bundle comprises of three parts the first one is your bank account which is kind of the purpose of this conversation second one is a dbs visa debit card which is super helpful the third one is you get access to your payla which is kind of the same as pay now and i'll explain that later on what that even is so that's if you set up your bank account via sync pass if you do not have sync passes yet for whatever reason i'm not judging then you just need to plug in a few more information it's still pretty straightforward all you got to do is just include things like the photo of your passport and once you submit that information you just need to wait up to three days before you can start banking so it's pretty much the same thing you just need to wait a little bit longer now that you've got your bank account set up obviously there's a multitude of things you can do okay you can start getting paid by your company at work um if you're like me you can pay your landlord via the like instant transfer there's no fees or anything like that so you can send money to other people and then the other way of sending money which i really wanted to point out because literally every single person i know in singapore uses this in singapore there's something called pay now think of it like the singapore equivalent of venmo okay so when you're going out for dinner with your friends and you guys are splitting the bill how do you send money to other people people usually do pay now so pay now you can have a qr code that your friends just scan and pay you or you can send people money via their phone number as well so that's what i do all the time in general you want to set up a pay now anyway because even if you're not paying your friends sometimes restaurants or like hawker centers they'll have a qr code splat on their wall and you can just scan it and pay that way if you don't have cash on hand so it's just really really something great that you should have in singapore another thing you can do as well is to remit money so a lot of people you know if they're working in singapore they may want to send money back home to their family or you need to send money overseas for whatever reason moments and services is obviously a thing and so i've actually done a full video like a 101 video about remitting money so if you want to watch it click top right corner that's where i explain everything related to it usually when you use the third party service there is a fee you're paying to that vendor and usually it's a percentage of however much money you're sending abroad or a lot of people also prefer to do it via their bank because there's a sense of security so if you bank with dbs it is no fees actually which is really surprising i was like there are no fees for my minik money and then also it's same day transfer so obviously if you're spending a large amount of money and sending it back home you do not want the anxiety spending like three days of like oh my god is my money there in my other bank account or family's bank account whatever it may be so that's really great and also if you're particularly sending money to hong kong or india they also have a function for you to track in real time so added sort of layer of security there as well for money remittance let's talk about getting a local singapore phone number so when you first literally land in singapore of course the first option is to just keep your phone number from back home and just use roaming obviously i wouldn't recommend this because it just gets extremely expensive let me just talk about why i think it's important to get a plus six five local number right away so in singapore whether you're going to a restaurant okay let's say you're going to din tai phong and you want to get some vows okay at the tai fung for example you can literally just put in your phone number there's usually an ipad at the front of the restaurant where you put in your phone number and they'll text you via sms when your table is close to being ready so there's a lot of phone number queuing you can do same for government buildings as well i seriously wish i knew this when i first came to singapore because i wasted so much time physically queueing there because i didn't have a local number so really recommend you guys to just set that up in singapore there are basically three major telcos okay there is m1 star hub and singtel and then there's also other companies that you can go to i personally go to another company called circles life my phone plan every month is like 28 or something like that i get like 15 gigs of data it's like i never use it my entire phone plan okay and that's also majorly focused on data heavy rather than sms text because who sms texts people these days anyway so there's different companies you can go to however if you are new to singapore and you're literally landing in the airport i 1890 will tell you to just go get a tourist sim card so they are dirt cheap you can go to any of the major providers and ask for a tourist sim card they go for around 12 and it lasts for seven days you can get a slightly longer one as well but it is literally like 100 gigabyte of data that you can use the only thing you want to be aware of is just make sure you bring your passport when you go to the provider because i think sometimes they need to verify that you're actually a tourist with like a foreign passport when i first moved to singapore i obviously hadn't even found a home yet let alone broadband wi-fi at home so what i did was i used this tourist sim card to hotspot myself so i can work so that's my recommendation definitely get that tourist sim card when you come to singapore on that note let's talk more about setting up your life from a living situation perspective so when it comes to housing and apartment hunting i made a very very comprehensive video about everything you need to know about apartment hunting in singapore and that's a very recent video as well so it's definitely up to date so in that video i talk all about what platforms can you go to to look for a home do you need an agent um what are the hot spot areas that people like to live in and the different types of housing and then also i show you some apartment viewings that i went to as well so click the top right corner if you want to watch that video so let's say you found an apartment that you like you're moved in from a broadband wi-fi perspective as well obviously there's a few different companies you can go to the ones i mentioned earlier are still valid so m1 star hub and singtel and then personally for my wi-fi i use a company called wiz comms um it's pretty cheap i think it's like 40 bucks a month this it's like one gigabyte per second super fast wi-fi at home there's also my republic which is another popular option as well so just shop around to see what your needs are because if you are also someone that likes cable tv i promise i won't judge but like who watches cable tvs these days anyway if you want cable tv as well um just take that into consideration that there are packages that you can get and if you need a landline at home for your phone then you know take that into consideration okay but if you're like me i need the bare bone minimum just give me some wi-fi and my maslow's hierarchy of needs bottom is wi-fi for me so all is good as long as it is fast wi-fi and i can upload youtube videos sure is a happy girl to add on this note if you are banking with dbs like i am definitely be aware of something that exists called the dbs utilities marketplace i didn't know that this existed earlier i kind of wish i did i would have saved money but basically as the name implies it's a marketplace where you can look for different providers of different things okay so whether you're talking about wi-fi phone numbers electricity providers and all that kind of stuff they've got different companies you can browse and search there's like discount codes and stuff like that so if you are banking with dbs you might as well take advantage of that because they've got the major providers on there okay so it's not some like random company i know m1 is in the marketplace circle's life my current phone number provider um my republic is on there as well so go browse check it out see if there's anything you can shop around to get some discounts on because who doesn't like saving money and let's talk about transportation in singapore ah i have nothing but good things to say about singapore's transport system okay it is clean it is reliable never breaking down there are no rats or bugs it's so um i love the singapore transfer system in case you couldn't tell okay it is by far a million miles the best public transport i've experienced in my life our main system is called the mrt system and so it comprises of subway trains you know underground also above ground as well there's also buses as well obviously you can always get one of those like subway cars where you can load up your wallet and tap with that but don't do that okay don't bother with it in singapore if you have a debit or credit card you can use it to tap in and out of the subway system and also the buses so i definitely recommend you guys to get one of the cards that is linked to simply go so you can just tap in and out super easily so earlier i talked about the dbs starter bundle and one of the things that came with it is the debit visa card so i personally use that all the time when i take buses and trains i just tap in and out with my debit card and it connects directly to my bank account so i never have to worry about loading up a card because that's so old school god okay so let's talk a little bit about car hailing in singapore there's different car hailing options that you can go for but then also there's obviously the actual taxi system here which is called comfort so comfort also has an app of its own and you've got like companies like gojack as well so i usually just download all the apps and then when i need to book a car i just go through all the apps and i see which one's the cheapest and then i just booked the cheapest one so i recommend you guys to just download all the apps okay and then also when you're paying let's say you're in a taxi you can also pay using earlier what i talked about for like the 10th time pay now you can do that because if i remember correctly if you pay with a credit card there is added fees when you pay for taxis with a credit card so you can use pay now super easy super convenient the last way of getting yourself from a to b is obviously walking okay so however i will say don't make the mistake i did when i first moved to singapore i would always go on google maps i'm like oh i just need to go to this place and it's a 20 minute walk and it's like 1 p.m or something it is scorching hot in singapore so what may be a 20-minute walk which i would happily do in canada honestly few is like a 40-minute walk when you're in singapore and honestly there has been so many moments where i was just dripping and drenched in sweat after walking so just be mindful of like walking is probably not as common as a way to get from a to b as you think when it is literally middle of the day and it's like 35 degrees with high humidity i would personally recommend you to always bring an umbrella with you obviously there's the people that like to use the umbrella to block the uv rays because it's so bloody hot in singapore but then of course more importantly sometimes it can just be absolute torrential rain out of the blue okay it will be like sunny at 12 pm and by 1 30 pm it is like boom there is no way you're walking anywhere without an umbrella and even with an umbrella you're probably going to get drenched anyway i personally have gotten to the habit of always carrying an umbrella with me i just think it's great and then another random tip i have is to always bring a pack of little tissues with you when you are in singapore this type of tissue one okay when you're eating at hawker centers they don't give you tissues to wipe your mouth or anything so that's important but secondly in singapore one of the things that i was first taught when i moved here was there's something called chopin's seats so choke is like you put a pack of tissue down or anything down and that means you reserve that spot so now you can go buy your food at one of the food stalls and then come back and just claim your tissue and sit down in that spot obviously you don't want to put down your wallet or valuable things so i would usually put down a little packet of tissue so that's another little tip and then lastly on the topic of food when i first moved to singapore i was so confused about how to order coffee in singapore at local spots singapore has a very elaborate system of ordering teas and coffees or should i say tays and coffees they have their own names for you know whether or not you want sugar if you want evaporated milk or you want condensed milk or you want no milk you want less sugar more sugar everything so there is a literal chart i'm gonna put on the screen here okay you can download this little chart and test out which flavor of local coffee or teas you like because it is just a very complex system but once you learn how to order coffee like a local pro welcome to singapore you have officially settled in a little bit and it's now time for you to go get some delicious local food and local coffee and enjoy your time here so i hope you guys have a great time eating all the good food in singapore exploring all the beautiful places here settling into your new home enjoying your very fast wi-fi maslow's hierarchy of needs you guys have other tips for people who are new to singapore and are setting up their lives please leave it in the comments down below and also if you want to know more about singapore feel free to subscribe to my channel i make videos about my life in singapore here places i visit cool things to do but then also i film videos about working in tech and the startup space in southeast asia so feel free to follow along my journey and i will see you guys in my next video alright thank you guys for watching see you guys bye [Music] you

Channel: sherrybyw

Views: 56,321

Keywords: abrushofbeauty, singapore, vlogger, expat, expat life, expat living, young expat, moving to singapore, singapore life, sherry, sherrybyw, startup, vc, venture capital

Id: WoXzbhSJl0Y

Length: 17min 30sec (1050 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 15 2021